Nationals ‘proud’ to formally scrap net zero target after party room meeting

The National party has unanimously decided to its scrap net zero commitments after a party room meeting on Sunday, piling pressure on Sussan Ley as the Liberals continue to debate its own energy platform. The party leader, David Littleproud, said the Nationals would focus on “aspirations” rather than targets and align Australia’s emissions reduction to other OECD countries. Littleproud said he was “proud” of the decision. He claimed “regional Australia is being torn apart” by the government’s energy policy, and that there was “a better, cheaper, fairer way” to reduce emissions than net zero. Littleproud said he had informed Ley that the Nationals would be scrapping the 2050 target, and said he would respect the Liberal party’s sovereignty as it came to its own position. “There’s a structured process, one in which the Liberal party has respected the sovereignty of our party room. We’ve got to our position before the Liberal party has settled theirs,” he said on Sunday afternoon. “So we’ll respect the Liberal party and the processes that they’re going to undertake. When that’s determined, then we’ll have those discussions after that.” Littleproud argued that Australia, which accounts for 1% of global emissions, has reduced emissions by 24% on 2005 levels, compared with the OECD average of 14%. “We believe that we can peg ourselves to the rest of the world. We’re not going to be a laggard, but we’re not going to streak ahead.” Senators Matt Canavan and Ross Cadell, who were charged with reviewing the party’s energy and net zero policy, put forward their policy research to the party room on Sunday morning for debate, with modelling by the Page Research Centre. Barnaby Joyce was not in the meeting. That report recommended adopting a trajectory of 2 to 9m tonnes in emissions reductions per year, with a focus on reducing energy prices. The Coalition supported a net zero by 2050 target under former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison in 2021, before being legislated by the Albanese government in 2022. The Nationals would scrap the Climate Change Act, Littleproud said. He said the party did not discuss whether they would push for Australia to leave the Paris agreement altogether. Related: Nationals members vote to ditch net zero target from party platform Sign up: AU Breaking News email The meeting on Sunday followed a discussion between Liberal MPs and senators on Friday. Liberals told Guardian Australia following their own discussion, which 35 members attended, that there was broad support for reducing emissions, with a focus on reducing energy prices. Some Liberals said they expected their party process – being led by the shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan – would come to a decision on their energy policy by Christmas. But there were doubts whether a changed Liberal position could be compromised further with the Nationals. The environment minister, Murray Watt, earlier said the National party was the “tail wagging the dog” in the Coalition, when asked about their net zero meeting. “We got the National party … dictating terms to the Liberal party who claim to be the majority party in a Coalition,” he told the ABC Insiders program on Sunday morning. “The idea that you would hand over climate and energy policy to the likes of Matthew Canavan and the ghost of Barnaby Joyce is like handing Dracula the keys to the blood bank.” The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was even more critical, describing the Nationals policy as a disaster that will put Australian lives at risk. “This abandoning of net zero abandons taxpayers, it abandons future generations, it abandons investments,” she said. “It abandons Australia’s role as a serious player in our region and our Pacific neighbours are going to be furious that they hear that this type of ridiculous snake oil of a policy is being promoted by the National party.”